Saturday, December 21, 2013

Sleeping well

During
first year of my engineering degree course at The Indian Institute of
Science in Bengaluru city in India, we were bombarded with so much of
home work and assignments at home (read as hostel room!) that we
found it impossible to snatch a good night's sleep. Each and every
one of my class mates, found it impossible to hit the bed before well
past midnight. After this went on for days and weeks, we got together
and decided to do something about it. We went to see head of our
department and complained to him. We were hoping for some relaxation.
Surprisingly, we got an advice that for adults, 5 hours of sleep is
adequate. Since we all were adults, there was no need to complain. We
came back empty handed, resigned to our fate of spending long nights
at the study table. Things continued in this fashion for few moths
and as we started the second semester, we found things getting easier
perhaps because we were now used to the new routine.

Later
in life, whenever I thought about this period of sleep adjustment, I
realised that it probably was done purposely to grind us in the world
of scientists and engineers, or to make us professionals, so that
whenever there would be a job demand to stay up, we would have the
necessary mental capacity to stand to it and was definitely not done
to make us insomniacs.

Yet a
new trend is emerging these days with many trained professionals of
young age being seen boasting that they can keep going on regularly
on just a few hours of sleep. A not so young lady, (in her forties)
working in Information Technology Industry, told me recently that she
comes home from work around 11 PM regularly and that time is more or
less the office norm or the work ethic. It appears that to keep up to
this timing or schedule, and stay at the office late working on a
project, probably is considered a medal of honour and any need to hit
the bed at this hour, is perhaps viewed as a sign of weakness, in
her IT company.

I was
astonished to hear this, because throughout my professional career, I
have always worked between 9AM to 5PM and have kept evenings
reserved for myself and the family and we all have always retired to
bed latest by 11 PM. I have considered having a sound sleep as a
basic requirement for good health. So, with this new trend emerging,
was all that, which I had believed throughout my active life, wrong?
Is working into midnight hours is healthier way of living?

I am
however relieved that what I believed was not incorrect. Professor
K. Anders Ericsson, a Swedish psychologist and Professor of
Psychology at Florida State University says that when you lose an
hour of sleep, it actually decreases your well-being, productivity,
health, and ability to think the following day. Harvard Medical
school in US has recently conducted, what could be called as one of
the most influential studies of human performance. According to this
study one less hour of sleep is not equal to an extra hour of
achievement, but actually in many cases the opposite may happen. His
study finds that top performers in their work actually slept 8 hours
and 36 minutes per day.

The
study reveals some unbelievable facts and figures. Lack of sleep
costs the American economy $63 billion a year in lost productivity
alone and the average American, for comparison, gets just 6 hours and
51 minutes of sleep on weeknights far less than recommended seven to
nine hours of high-quality sleep. A survey from the National Sleep
Foundation (USA),says that roughly two-thirds of people studied, do
not get enough sleep on weeknights. The study also claims that a
loss of four hours of sleep, produces as much impairment as consuming
a six-pack of beer.

I
remember quite well that when I used to have some problems in my
business, my sleep would be the first thing that would be affected. I
used to wake up at 2 or 3 PM and would find it impossible to sleep
again. This waking up would surely ruin my next working day as I
would feel miserable throughout the next day. Many people face this
kind of situation in their normal daily routines. I also had found
out that if I could catch a nap of even 15 to 30 minutes, may be
early in the morning, it would make a major difference to my next
day, even after having much less sleep.

But
how to manage to get really good sleep. There are few tricks that
can be tried. The environment in your bedroom must be the right one
to induce sleep. It is better to have your bedroom temperature few
degrees lower than the day time temperature in your work place. That
is why we observe that during winter we normally have more sound
sleep basically due to this reason. At lower temperatures, our body
clocks do not wake us up at odd hours. Having a silent neighbourhood
also helps . We must have a routine, which should be strictly
adhered to. Perhaps what is most crucial is the kind of activity that
we do in the hours before bed time. Many people watch TV, many use
their smartphones. The scientists however suggest that impose a
moratorium on all electronic devices in the hour before your normal
bedtime is and be cautious about bright light from any sources in the
hours before bed.

Giving
up sleep is not a sign of strength. On the contrary, sleep is something
on which, our work performance is based. It is a positive investment for a
fruitful day.